Automatic feeders

The greatest advantage of automated calf feeders is reduction in labour. However, you must remember you are still dealing with live animals and calves still need to be visually checked twice daily.

Automated feeding for individually housed calves

This feeder can take all the guess work – and most of the manual labour – out of feeding individually housed dairy calves.

The pros and cons of automated calf feeding

Part of a calf’s natural behaviour, say animal welfare experts, is consuming multiple smaller meals throughout the day. Automated feeding machines, which are starting to attract interest in Canada, let calves express that natural behaviour but will require some changes in how producers manage their herds.

Make automatic feeders more inviting

There are challenges with using an automatic milk feeder —one of those being calves need to learn to use and interact with the feeder. Calves that have a harder time learning to use the feeder could have decreased milk consumption, which could potentially lead to slow-growing or sick calves.